... the awkwardness factor perhaps.
Students write query letters. Fine.
Students write synopses. Fine.
Students begin bringing in rejection letters,
and asking for real time advice about publishers
and agents they're sub'ing to.
Teacher declares, "That's not my #%&@ job!"
And rightly so, imho.
Then that teacher has no concept of boundaries. I had a student try to drop a 250k-word sci-fi/zombie book into my lap. Not happening. Sure they can submit pages from it for workshop within class perimeters, but if a teacher tackles the teaching of queries and synopses, then they should be practical enough to know that they're not there to do a student's work for them.
Students from my MFA submitted constantly to literary magazines across 3 years. I don't know of a single one who brought all their rejections in and tried to monopolize a teacher's time with it all.
A good many of my old MFA friends have gone off into other non-writing careers--teaching, of course, but also editing or other careers in publishing. Many years after I finished, I learned that my school also offers one of the top (and one of the few) graduate certificates in the business of publishing. How useful it would have been if someone on the faculty had even mentioned that fact to us at the time. We all knew that we would have to do something while we worked to become professional writers or writing teachers, and I would have jumped at the chance to explore some career options.
All this being said, I really enjoyed my MFA years. I don't regret the time, the money, or the sacrifices I made to get there. I just think there's a huge opportunity for MFA programs to become much more competitive and much more valuable to their students.
I would say of the 7 people in my group:
One is a food critic for a popular local magazine.
One is an editor for a clothing magazine.
One works for a college press as an editor.
One is teaching part-time and writing full-time to finish her novel. (Her husband is helping to support her.)
One is teaching high school English.
One is a writing coach and continues to publish in the lit-mag world.
I'm in a Ph.D. program but continue to write.
I would have jumped on a publishing course in a heartbeat. They actually have courses in the journalism department that address publication of articles and nonfiction. I wish I had known that as well during my MFA.
And I agree, they should rethink their model to try and help students obtain success. It benefits the department if they have alumni with clout and who might be able to donate now and then--or drum up awareness/support.